Wed, Mar 04, 2026 page3

• Ex-lawmaker urges defense bill passage

  ‘POLITICAL UNITY’: Jason Hsu told a US body that ‘resilience, resolve and backing commitments with action’ were required for Taiwan to see support from the world

  • By Hollie Younger / Staff writer, with CNA
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  The legislature should approve a defense funding bill, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) told a US Senate security panel hearing on undersea cable security in Washington on Monday.

  The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Monday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on a panel about undersea infrastructure and strategic resources.

  Speaking as a former lawmaker, the Hudson Institute senior fellow said that the Legislative Yuan must pass the defense budget.

  

  An operator works during the mooring of an undersea fiber optic cable at Arrietara beach near Sopelana, Philippines, on June 13, 2017.

  Photo: AFP

  Taiwan’s national security “cannot be a partisan issue,” Hsu said.

  President William Lai (賴清德) in November last year announced a NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.55 billion) special defense budget to be allocated over eight years, including arms purchases from the US.

  After repeatedly blocking the bill, the opposition-controlled legislature on Friday last week agreed to allow the Executive Yuan’s proposal to proceed to committee review, alongside a NT$400 billion version drafted by the Taiwan People’s Party and a planned version from the KMT.

  Taiwan’s political parties must stand in unity when facing national security threats, Hsu said.

  “Only by strengthening our own resilience, demonstrating resolve and backing commitments with action can we ask the world to stand with us,” he said.

  Hsu told the panel that if China invaded Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout.

  In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s cable repair capabilities are insufficient.

  China has deliberately targeted Taiwan’s undersea cables as part of its expanding “gray zone” warfare toolkit, with a notable and alarming escalation since 2023, Hsu said.

  It is one of the most urgent security challenges facing Taiwan and the broader Indo-Pacific region as a “gray zone” warfare tactic that is “calibrated, deniable and escalating,” he said.

  Severing three cable clusters near the Bashi Channel could reduce Taiwan’s international bandwidth by up to 95 percent when combined with cyberoperations and satellite jamming, Hsu said.

  Taiwan is connected to the global network through 24 undersea cables, 14 of which are international links to Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and the US, he said.

  Any disruption to undersea cables would cost Taiwan up to US$55 million per day, before considering the wider implications of interrupting semiconductor supply chains, he said.

  It would “paralyze financial markets, disrupt semiconductor manufacturing, and sever critical military and government communications,” Hsu said.

  In peacetime, average cable repair time exceeds 40 days, he said, adding that Taiwan has no indigenous cable repair ships.

  In wartime, repairs would be “nearly impossible,” while satellite data links would be insufficient, he said.

  Hsu recommended actions to the US Congress, including passing the Taiwan Undersea Cable Resilience Initiative Act, introduced in July last year, investing in cable repair capacity and increasing sanctions on vessels that cut cables.

  Taiwan should also build domestic cable repair capacity, ideally with Japan, and the Coast Guard Administration should expand vessel watch lists and patrols near critical cable corridors, he said.

  Established in 2000, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission is a legislative branch commission of the US Congress assigned to monitor, investigate and report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the US and China.
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